this influence

Harold Bloom talks about writers being belated - born late in history when everything good has been written. So, they need to willfully misread their mentors. They know perfection  has already been achieved and it kills them, so they resist. 

But maybe there's something else other than the influence of tradition that empowers literary creation. If I was a writer, I think I would disagree with Bloom's view. Yes, there's a sense in which there's nothing new under the sun and everything's been done, but one of the best things about writing and art and music, is the way that the best creators fuse tradition and their own spirit to create - to make something that is at once absolutely new and absolutely recognizable.